


Burden

by TiredRazzberry



Series: Death & the Citron [1]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Focus On A Kurosaki Sister Who Isn't Karin, Gen, Light Angst, Meet-Cute, Not Canon Compliant, Not Canon Compliant - Bleach Chapter 686 - Death & Strawberry, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net, Platonic Meet-Cute, Platonic Relationships, Yuzu Kurosaki-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-11
Updated: 2017-11-11
Packaged: 2019-01-31 22:50:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12691791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TiredRazzberry/pseuds/TiredRazzberry
Summary: All Yuzu wanted was for someone to tell her the truth.Along the way home one rainy afternoon, she meets someone.





	Burden

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing.
> 
> On a writing note: This is mostly just a quick formatting fix because three years ago I apparently didn't know how to paragraph for shit and also minor writing things. Also now I have a Grammarly extension on my browser, so maybe that will be useful?? I don't know, I hope the Ao3 crowd likes it.
> 
> Second time actually posting it here since the first time the date got flubbed haha...

"You should hurry home, Yuzu-chan." The store manager Kumamoto said as he finished bagging her groceries.

Yuzu peered out the store windows, up at the sky. It was full of gray clouds. On the street, people hurried to get to where they needed to be before the storm started.

"Do you have an umbrella?" Kumamoto asked her.

Yuzu patted the side of her school bag. "Right here." She said with a smile. The weather had been rainy lately in Karakura Town, so she, like many Karakura residents, had taken to carrying her umbrella with her almost everywhere.

Kumamoto smiled back as he handed her groceries across the counter. "That's good. Wouldn't want my favorite customer catching a cold." He said kindly.

"You tell all your customers that they're your favorite, Kumamoto-san." Yuzu giggled. 

"Well, it's not a lie." Kumamoto laughed, Yen signs sparkling in his old eyes. 

The old man waved goodbye as she stepped outside the small grocery store. Yuzu shivered at a passing breeze. It was chilly out - at least compared to the warm and sunny weather they had enjoyed earlier in the day. But that had just been the literal calm before the storm. Hustling towards home, Yuzu wondered what the weather was like at the soccer camp her brother was attending. The small smile that had been playing on her face up until that moment fell into a crestfallen frown. "What the weather's like where Ichigo really is?" She asked the darkening sky.

Yuzu wasn't nearly as naïve as her father and sister thought she was. She may not have known the specifics of what was going on, but it was impossible at this point for her to not know that her brother's disappearances had to do with something bigger than soccer camp or delinquency. Nor was it possible for her not to have figured out that Rukia and the rest of her brother's friends were involved. And her father. And maybe even Karin; though even if she wasn't directly involved like everyone else in the world seemingly was, her sister still knew more than Yuzu, that was certain.  _Soccer camp_. Yuzu let out a breathless laugh. They were all so ready to make up lame excuses for why her brother had suddenly disappeared off the face of the earth again. And why? To protect her, probably.  _But from what?_  Yuzu wondered dejectedly.

Yuzu was knocked out of her moping as she knocked _into_ someone on the sidewalk. She hadn't seen them, she had been staring at her feet - goodness! She could've wandered into the street! Flustered, Yuzu looked up from her shoes with apologies on the tip of her tongue and finally laid eyes on her victim-slash-inadvertent savior. Her apologies shrivel up in fear and beat a hasty retreat back down her throat.

The man before her did not face her, as he was staring intently into a store window. However, from the side, Yuzu could see he had spiky black hair that fell in his scarred face. What she at first mistook for a bandage appeared to be a tattoo across the bridge of his nose.  His clothes were quite intentionally ratty, with holes and fraying and missing sleeves. Maybe they'd burst at the seams with how tight they were and how muscular the stranger was; the thought made Yuzu flush. On at least one of his upper arms, the stranger wore a band that matched the choker around his neck. Overall, the young man looked like a real punk except for his expression, which was that of childlike awe.

Glancing at the display the punk that had been mesmerized by, Yuzu saw that it was a full set for a rock band. A guitar, a bass, a drum set, and a number of amps clustered around a mike at center stage. A small sign announced their Used status and the accompanying twenty percent price cut. Claustrophobic, but charming in its dinkiness. Looking back at the punk, Yuzu wondered if he had even felt her bump into him. He must've been deep into some fantasy about playing one of the instruments on a real stage for a crowd of adoring fans. Bass, drums, or vocals, that gleam in his eye said it was a pretty nice daydream. 

Yuzu debated for a moment just walking away without apologizing. If TV and what her classmates said was any indication, punks weren't people you wanted to associate with, childlike awe or no. For all she knew, grabbing this stranger's attention could be a mistake she would go live to regret - _if_ she lived. Another shiver ran through her, no thanks to the breeze this time. She almost walked away.

But then Yuzu thought of her brother and his odd friends. Ichigo had always gotten trouble from bullies and real delinquents because people thought his hair meant he was some thug. A teacher once sent a home note saying that if they kept him away from the bleach bottle, maybe he wouldn't get into so many fights. Some of those odd friends her brother had over, like the bald one and the one with tattoos, looked like trouble at first glance, but if they really had been bad people Yuzu doubted her brother would have associated with them so amicably. Or, well, let them in the house that one time...The point still stood. If her brother and his odd friends had taught Yuzu anything, it was not to judge a book by its cover.

"Excuse me, mister?" Yuzu said confidently, putting on a smile as she gently poked the stranger's shoulder.

The stranger was jolted from his reverie then. His eyes flew from the store window to settle on Yuzu. "Oh, yes?" He said with a surprisingly soft and polite tone of voice.

It softened the impact of seeing his whole face dead on. That spiky hair of his only fell in his face on one side, leaving the right side ripe for gawking. The light blue tattoo on the bridge of his nose extended across his entire left cheek and disappeared behind his sideburns. Below that the number '69' was printed in bold black font. Whatever meaning there was behind it was lost on Yuzu. She just hoped it wasn't some sort of gang symbol.

It would be a lie to say that Yuzu wasn't unnerved by the sight of more tattoos, but she continued to smile and persevered in her apology. She bowed to the stranger-that-she-hoped-to-all-the-gods-was-not-a-violent-yakuza.

"I would like to apologize for bumping into you just now, sir." When she straightened up, the stranger looked quite confused and suddenly not all yakuza-y.

"You did? Well, no problem, I guess. It was probably my fault honestly." He responded almost shyly. He seemed to avoid her gaze, his own wandering back to the window display. 

A distinctly now musical beat later - 

"Are you in a band?" Yuzu asked, rocking back on her heels. 

The stranger shook his head. "No, but I'm learning how to play guitar." He smiled. It softened his features to marshmallow. "I would buy that amp and take it back with me…" His smile fell, though the marshmallowy effect was not lost. "But right now isn't a good time. Besides, last time I brought something back with me from here my superiors chewed me out for making a ruckus."

He sounded so dispirited, Yuzu observed. His eyes were sad too, she noticed now as she finally dared to look into them, sadder than a person should be over an amp. All at once, Yuzu felt like she was overstepping some invisible boundary and quickly looked back to her feet. "I hope everything gets better, mister." She said, deciding it was best to leave now. "Maybe next time you come to Karakura Town, you'll be able to get that amp."

The stranger smiled weakly. Like he didn't think hoping was good for much. "Hopefully." 

Yuzu was giving the stranger a parting smile when she felt a little splash on the tip of her nose. Blinking at first in confusion, she looked up at the steel gray sky and then down at the sidewalk. The pavement was growing increasingly polka-dotted, along with Yuzu and the stranger's clothes, with growing speed. 

"Oh!" Yuzu gasped. She set down her groceries and began digging in her school bag for her umbrella. Opening the pink contraption, Yuzu then struggled to pick up all her groceries again while still holding her umbrella and school bag in her other hand.

"Here," The stranger said, reaching for two of the bags of Yuzu's feet. "Allow me to help you." He offered kindly.

Yuzu smiled at the stranger with relief. "Thank you." She breathed. Yuzu ended up carrying only two of the grocery bags. The stranger kindly offered to carry the other five. "I live just a few blocks away." She explained as they began walking. "Are you sure you'd like to help? I wouldn't want to keep you from anything important or distract you from where you were going before."

The stranger shook his head. "It's no problem. I was heading in this direction anyway. Actually, maybe you could help me out. Do you know where Kurosaki Clinic is exactly? The directions I was given were vague, to say the least." 

"I live there!" Yuzu exclaimed, astonished by the man's request.

The stranger looked just as thrown for a loop. "You mean you're—you're one of Ichigo Kurosaki's family members, aren't you?"

Yuzu nodded her head with more than a smidge of pride. "Yes, yes, I'm his sister. Kurosaki Yuzu. Who are you?" She asked curiously.

"My name's Hisagi Shuhei. I guess you could say I'm an acquaintance of your brother's." The stranger, this mysterious Hisagi Shuhei, responded.

"I never knew Kurosaki had younger sisters," Hisagi confessed in the moments following their proper introductions to one another. "Not that he never talked about you—I'm sure he's talked about you to his close friends—but Kurosaki and I haven't really interacted personally," Hisagi explained.

"How do you know my brother then, Hisagi-san?" Yuzu asked confusedly then.  

"He's a friend of some friends really. You might have met them when they were here."

Yuzu thought back to those strange new friends of her brothers who had shown up out of the blue months ago. They were hard to forget. "Did one of them have lots of tattoos? And another was a really pretty woman with, uh…long strawberry blond hair?" Yuzu asked, choosing her words carefully.

Hisagi nodded, smiling at the very mention of his friends. "That would be Renji Abarai and Rangiku Matsumoto. They're some close friends of mine and your brother both."

As they came to stop at a corner, waiting for the light to turn so they could cross safely, Yuzu began chewing on her bottom lip. She'd known that she hadn't recognized Hisagi's name from any of Ichigo's stories from school - and surely one of her friends' elder siblings would've mentioned someone so distinct in appearance. Ichigo wasn't the most social creature, so that left just about one option to where he knew Hisagi from: whatever trouble he was always getting into. Yuzu was not so naive as her family thought. She knew an opportunity when she saw one. 

"Hisagi-san…" Yuzu began.

"Yeah?"

Yuzu took a steeling breath. "Do you—" A car flew past them, sending up a great splash that drenched her and Hisagi both from the waist down. The both of them let out a small yelp and jumped back from the curb. 

Hisagi heaved a great sigh and gave each damp leg a shake. "Great." He grumbled before turning to her. "Are you okay?"

"Fine." Yuzu replied monotonously, though on the inside she was mourning the opportunity to ask how exactly Hisagi's friends, such as Renji and Rangiku, had met her brother in the first place. The moment was gone, murdered by a jerk in a Nissan. 

From then on, hers and Hisagi's idle chit-chat was more about the bad weather, Karakura Town, and mostly impersonal. Yuzu was unable to find an opportunity to ask about her brother again. They arrived at Kurosaki Clinic just as the rain started to pick up and were quick to hustle indoors.

"Dad, Karin, I'm home!" Yuzu announced as she entered the house, closing her umbrella. Hisagi was right behind her, closing the door. "And I brought a guest!"

Leaping from behind a corner, Kurosaki Isshin barreled towards his daughter with manic glee. "My darling Yuzu is home!" He cheered with fatherly tears of joy in his eyes. She'd been gone all of an hour.  

Sighing, Yuzu took her recently closed umbrella and reopened it just as her father came within arm's length, shielding teenage daughter from overly affectionate father. The wet plastic audibly smacked the man in the face. A stillness followed. Through a plasticine sheen of pink, Yuzu could make out an imprint of her father's dumbstruck face. Nearly a whole minute ticked by before Isshin jerked his face away and fell back on the genkan floor to wallow in self-pity. Beyond her umbrella, Yuzu heard her father let out a cry like some mournful banshee and wriggling against the rug.

"Why must you be so cold-hearted, Yuzu!? What happened to Daddy's little girl!? And why would you open an umbrella indoors, don't you know that's bad luck!?" Isshin cried with melodramatic sorrow. Yuzu heard footsteps approaching the genkan. Karin soon appeared with a bored expression.

"Welcome home." Karin greeted her dully. Her bored expression was piqued with interest at the sight of the young man standing behind her twin. "Who's he?" She asked with a tilt of her head.

Yuzu's umbrella was ripped suddenly from her grasp and tossed away with startling ease by her previously wallowing father. Isshin leveled Hisagi with a dark scowl so overdramatic that neither Yuzu nor Karin could really take it seriously. Hisagi, on the other hand, grew visibly nervous and cast Yuzu a rapid series of questioning glances. She sent him a single apologetic look in return.

"Yuzu…Who is this _man_?" Was her father's icy demand.

Yuzu smiled perfectly primly as she introduced their guest. "This is Hisagi Shuhei, a friend of Ichigo's. He's here to…to…" Yuzu looked at Hisagi like he was an unsolved puzzle. "Why _are_  you here, Hisagi?" She asked. An upsetting thought struck her. "Oh, please don't tell me you're here to see Ichigo!" 

Thankfully, he wasn't. "Actually, I'm here to speak to  _you_ , Kurosaki-san." Hisagi said, looking at Yuzu's father. Isshin's expression sobered.

"Right. Follow me." Isshin said.

Yuzu and Karin watched their father lead their guest away, leaving them alone in the genkan.

"Yuzu," Karin began listlessly. "Please tell me you aren't going to start bringing weirdoes home like stray cats like Ichigo."

A half-hour later, dinner was simmering on the stove. Yuzu was just setting the table when she wondered if Hisagi would be joining them. Despite what her sister had complained earlier, Yuzu didn't want to treat Hisagi like an unwanted guest just because he was another member of her brother's seemingly endless array of odd friends. And since Ichigo wasn't around to behave like a proper host, Yuzu supposed she would have to. She was the one who brought Hisagi to their home in the first place after all.

Thinking it was best to just ask him herself rather than make assumptions, Yuzu headed towards her father's office where he and Hisagi had been cooped up since Hisagi's arrival. She approached the door quietly, her slipper-clad feet padding softly against the wooden floor, making little to no noise. As she drew closer to the office, the mummer of voices grew louder, bit by bit. Yuzu was preparing to knock on the door when she overheard her father's slightly muffled voice through the wood declare, "I always knew there was a possibility that my son wouldn't be able to return."

Yuzu's hand stilled against the wood grain. Her breath cooled in her lungs. Timidly, she pressed her ear to the door and prayed she had misheard.

"Your son is a great asset to the Soul Society, sir," Hisagi said. It sounded less like a genuine compliment and more like he was trying to lessen the sting of a wound. "Head Captain Kyoraku wanted me to inform you of that. If his presence wasn't such a necessity, the Soul Society wouldn't be asking him, your family, to give up so much for us. It seemed like only a remote possibility before, but considering the recent developments, that possibility has become a near certainty. My condolences, sir." 

Yuzu's eyebrows drew together in confusion.  _Soul Society?_  She mouthed the words and they made no more sense. And who was this Head Captain Kyoraku person? Why did he feel he had to keep Ichigo from coming home?

Her father sighed deeply behind the door. Not like he was especially upset about what Hisagi said, but like he'd had a long day at the clinic and was taking a load off at his desk. Yuzu resented his blasé attitude. "What am I going to tell Karin and Yuzu?" He grumbled.

Why not the truth? Yuzu wondered. 

"Excuse me…um, Captain Shiba," Hisagi began timidly as if not sure of his words.

"Please, just call me Isshin. I am no longer a Captain, nor do I bear the Shiba name." Yuzu only grew more confused at that. 

"Isshin, sir, if I may, I would like to inquire at the behest of Head Captain Kyoraku about what you plan to do," Hisagi said, all business with his tone now. He sounded like a soldier. Did this have to do with the Japanese Self-Defense Force? _Goodness_ , special-ops like in the movies? 

"It should be fairly obvious," Isshin replied with all the bravado of an action hero. "Tell Shunsui that he can count on me to be present at the final battle."

Yuzu couldn't stand to hear a word more and be more confused. She quickly padded away from the office door and back to the kitchen.

Karin was standing over one of the pans on the stove when she returned. She was poking at the contents with a spatula and a bewildered expression. "What's the deal, Yuzu? The vegetables were beginning to burn." Karin asked as her sister entered the room. "You're usually so on top of—are you okay?" All concerns for dinner were forgotten at the sight of Yuzu's troubled expression. 

Yuzu put on her best reassuring smile. "I'm fine. I just…I just don't feel well." She lied, and then she gently pushed her sister away from the stove. "Here, let me. You go tell Dad that dinner's ready." She ordered, and after a second, Karin complied. 

Hisagi did end up staying for dinner at Isshin's behest.

"Thank you for the meal, Kurosaki-san. I hope I'm not troubling you too much." Hisagi said as they all took their seats. He was being perfectly polite, but Yuzu couldn't shake the feeling that they were the ones troubling him. He had the posture of someone who had places to be, if not people to meet. 

"It's no trouble at all, but really you should be thanking my daughter Yuzu. She does all the cooking around here." Said Isshin with a grin and a pat on Yuzu's back. Hisagi smiled across the table at her. 

"Thank you then, Yuzu-san. For both this meal and for showing me the way here."

"You're welcome, Hisagi-san. It was really no problem." Yuzu replied softly before digging into her own plate.

Isshin chuckled beside her. "I imagine Shunsui's directions weren't that great. Now that I think of it, that guy hasn't even been here once, not even when he came to see Ichigo's friends at school. He just left the tickets in the mailbox and took off." Yuzu watched her forty-five-year-old father pout like a toddler. She wished she could be surprised. " _Some friend he is_."

Across the table, Karin gave her father a dubious look. "Who's Shunsui?" She asked. She was doing her best not to look or sound as curious as she was, Yuzu could tell.

Isshin waved her question off. "Just an old friend of mine from back in the day before I met your mom." He let out a nostalgic sigh and leaned far back in his chair. "Boy, those were the days. Drinking with the guys, ditching paperwork," His teeth gleamed in a lecherous grin. "Rangiku's sweet rack."

Hisagi's punkish exterior really didn't match his interior; he blushed tomato red at Isshin's words.  _Rangiku_ , Yuzu dwelled on the name, remembering her conversation with Hisagi earlier. Rangiku was one of her brother's odd friends and Hisagi's too. But that woman couldn't have been much older than Ichigo. Sure, she looked a little old for high school, but...How could that Rangiku woman know Yuzu's father from before he met her mother? Let alone have been old enough to have a…"sweet rack" before Ichigo was even born?

"Of course, I gave all that up for your mother, and I can honestly say that I don't regret it one bit." Her father said with absolute honesty in his voice, in a way redeeming his perverted behavior from just a moment before. Still, Yuzu was left wondering.

She tried to catch Hisagi's eye across the table and silently ask how his friend Rangiku could know her father and still be waltzing around in a school uniform. She managed it for an instance. Their eyes met for a second maybe two and then Hisagi averted his gaze down to his plate. Yuzu wasn't sure if her message got across. She wasn't sure if Hisagi would answer her if it had. 

"You never said, Yuzu," Karin spoke suddenly. "How did you come across Hisagi-san?"

Her father and sister's intent stares were suddenly upon Yuzu. Isshin's especially - maybe he wasn't as cool with the strange man who'd come home with his daughter as he'd been acting. "Well, Hisagi-san was looking into a store window and I bumped into him. I apologized and was about to be on my way when it started to rain. Hisagi-san offered to help me carry my groceries." Yuzu explained.

Isshin beamed at Hisagi with fatherly approval, the last vestiges of his fatherly animosity gone. "Well, aren't you a knight in shining armor." He teased.

Hisagi's tattooed and scarred cheeks pinkened. "It was nothing, sir. I was heading here anyways." He said quietly, taking a tentative sip of his drink. 

Yuzu's lips moved of their own accord. "Why?" She asked and everyone at the table blinked at her in subdued surprise. She  _had_  said it rather loudly.

"To speak to your father," Hisagi answered slowly.

"Yes, but why?" Yuzu persisted. "I mean, you never said."

Isshin frowned at her. "Now, Yuzu, that's private." He chided her. It had been so long since he'd been the one doing the chiding. 

"Yes, but…" Yuzu trailed off. Should she admit that she had eavesdropped on their conversation earlier? If she did, what would they do? Rebuke her for eavesdropping and never answer her question probably. "Yes, but what about…what about Ichigo?" She asked instead. "I mean, what other reason would one of his friends come to talk to you if not about him?"

Isshin was silent for a long moment. Hisagi glanced around the room. Karin regarded Yuzu with something verging on suspicious.

"Yes...it was about your brother." Isshin finally said. Yuzu smiled hopefully, her posture improved, she clasped her hands before her in delight.

" _And?_ "

"And…there's great news from soccer camp!" Isshin stood up on his chair and pointed triumphantly towards the ceiling. "Your brother has got some scouts looking at him!" Isshin announced with crocodile tears in his eyes. "Isn't that great news, my darling daughters!?"

Yuzu swallowed the urge to scream and forced her smile to stay on her face. Her lips twitched - she hoped her father thought they were wobbling with unshed tears of joy. "T-That's—that's great, Dad!" She agreed and everything that followed seemed to happen to someone else, like in a TV show. Karin made some snarky comment, and Hisagi quickly followed with some excuse about being a counselor at the camp Ichigo was attending, and all Yuzu could do was smile through her anguish and say how proud she was of her brother. Her throat felt raw, and pressure built at her temples from where she'd clenched her teeth. She hoped that Karin and her father thought the tears welling in the corners of her eyes were that of pride.

After dinner, Karin volunteered to do the dishes, giving Yuzu a chance to start her homework. She climbed upstairs intent on taking refuge in hers and her sister's shared bedroom for a while. She had a vain hope that equations would take her mind off Ichigo and their lying family. In the upstairs hallways, she came across Hisagi leaving the bathroom. He bowed when he spotted her.

"Thank you once again for everything, Yuzu."

"It was nothing, really." Yuzu's reply was limp. All she wanted to do was get to her room. She didn't want to exchange meaningless pleasantries with Hisagi, especially after learning he was just as much a liar as everyone else was.

Hisagi frowned at her. "Well, I still appreciate it. The meal was the best I've had in awhile. Your brother is very lucky to have such an excellent cook in his family. And I'll be sure to tell him as much myself when I get back to camp. Are there any messages you'd like me to pass along while I'm at it?" Hisagi inquired considerately.

Yuzu thought it over. Even if soccer camp, Hisagi being a counselor, and those scouts were all blatant lies, one thing Yuzu was certain of was that Hisagi knew where her brother was and would be joining him shortly. "Tell him that I miss him and that when he gets home I'll make him whatever he wants for dinner. So remember to hurry back and not to forget about us down here, okay?"

Hisagi nodded once, a promise. "I'll be sure to tell him."

Heavy footsteps could be heard from the stairs behind them. Yuzu turned around to find her father trudging upstairs.

"Oh, there you are, Hisagi. I was going to ask you if you had a jacket before you left. It's coming down like cats and dogs out there." 

Hisagi shrugged. "I don't mind. It's not like I need to go very far before…" He trailed off, eyes darting between Yuzu and her father. Yuzu narrowed her eyes at him; he didn't seem to notice. 

Isshin, like any parent, was not willing to let an adolescent step outside into less than ideal weather without a jacket. " _Still_ , it wouldn't do to let you walk out there and get soaked to the bone. The neighbors will give me more dirty looks than usual." He waved towards Ichigo's room. "Come on, I'll lend you one of my son's sweatshirts or something. You're about the same size by the looks of it."

Hisagi looked uncomfortable, glancing at Yuzu with unease. It was cruel of her, but Yuzu ignored the silent plea for help. Instead, she watched her father as he stepped around her and Hisagi towards Ichigo's door. 

"Sir, really I'm fine. I wouldn't want to borrow any of your son's things without his knowledge or any guarantee that I could return it later." Hisagi protested.

Isshin went ahead and opened Ichigo's door. "Nonsense, it's just a jacket. Besides, it's not like Ichigo's really going to be needing his clothes any time in the future at this rate." The last bit was said under his breath in a cynical grumble. Right in front of her. 

"You never tell me the truth." Yuzu seethed. Her fingernails dug into her palms painfully, but not an ounce of her cared.

Isshin and Hisagi, father and stranger, both looked at her with surprise.

"What was that, Yuzu?" Asked Isshin.

Yuzu fixed her father with a glare. She'd never done that before. Not this way.

"You. Never. Tell. Me. The. Truth!" Yuzu repeated louder, enunciating each word clearly and concisely. There would be no mistaking her feelings. 

"Sweetheart, what are you—"

"Not even now with me _right in front of you_ can you be honest with me!" She shouted. She wasn't a yeller - maybe a bit of a squealer when she was excited - and she found that little bit of it left her throat raw. The fact that she was on the brink of tears because of them for the second time that evening made her even angrier.  _Pissing her off_ , in Ichigo & Co.'s speak. "You act like I'm some, some-" She made an angry, flustered sound."-who can't put two and two together— _soccer camp!_  I mean really!?" Scornful laughs kind of hurt, too, but sure were satisfying. 

The eye-roll felt good, too, till they rolled onto Hisagi. "And _you_ ," His flinch was better than the laugh and the eye-roll combined. That wouldn't save him. "You don't really believe I bought any of that…that  _charade_  you two threw together at the dinner table, do you? Did you seriously think I could be enough of a ditz to completely forget what we talked about on the way here?" Yuzu wanted to yell some more, sore throat be damned. But she wasn't Ichigo or her twin - she was her happy-go-lucky-sunshine-goof dad at heart and her fury simmered as a boiling over pot did once one removed the lid. It left her, taking what little energy she had at the end of the day with it. 

Her shoulders sagged and Yuzu felt so tired. Part of her just wanted to shove past her father and into her bedroom to collapse into bed for the rest of the evening. She'd wake up early to do her homework. Most of her, however, couldn't stand to be in this house for a moment longer. That by itself would be exhausting.

"I wish I was as clueless as you think I am." Yuzu spat and turned on her heel.

She was down the stairs and through the living room in second. Karin called after as she passed. Yuzu didn't catch it and didn't care for once to kindly ask she repeat herself. Long strides and a head start had her out the front door before her father was at the foot of the stairs.

Outside, it was just as bad as her father made it seem - probably worse. Hisagi would have been wise to take up Isshin's offer, Ichigo really wouldn't have minded -  _but the hoodie wasn't the point_. Yuzu was soaked by the time she made it to a bus stop some blocks away from the clinic. The metal awning offered some much-needed shelter from the rain, even if the endless metallic pitter-patter of rain really tried her nerves in her current state. But it was better to sit there on that bench and listen to the world's worst white-noise soundtrack than to run aimlessly through Karakura Town in the dark.

She didn't know how long she had been sitting there, staring at her own bare feet when the white toes of a pair of black sneakers came into view. She looked up and Hisagi stood before her. Her first thought was  _Not you_. Then,  _he's better than Dad or Karin._  She didn't want to see either one of them right now, those liars. Hisagi, at least, was a stranger. Then again, that by itself was reason enough to shoo him off.

"Tell my dad I'll be back in awhile. I just need some time to cool off, okay?" She muttered, stubbornly looking back down at her feet.

Hisagi didn't reply. Not unless sitting down next to her without a word could be considered a proper reply. Maybe it was in whatever dangerous, weirdo secret society her brother had gotten wrapped up in. Yuzu scooted away from Hisagi to the edge of the bench. She refused to feel childish about it. He didn't seem to hold it against her.

"What was that back there?" Hisagi asked after a beat.

Yuzu stubbornly didn't answer him for a long time. She had only met Hisagi that day and so far the only thing she knew about him was he was just another liar like all her brother's friends were and her own family. Just like everyone else, he had no qualms about lying to her face if it meant hiding what her brother was up to. Even though what Ichigo was currently involved in could apparently end up keeping him from ever returning home…And that was definitely her business.

"Is my brother ever going to come home, Hisagi-san?" Yuzu asked.

"It's not my place to answer that." That reply made her want to scream.

Yuzu stood and began walking across the street. It was better she left in search of a new sulking ground than stay a moment longer and risk flying into another rage. She was only a few steps out from under the awning when Hisagi grabbed her wrist and yanked her back underneath.

"What are you trying to do? Catch your death? Get struck by lightning? Listen, your brother would probably never forgive me if I just let you walk off like that and get yourself hurt." Hisagi chastised her.

Yuzu scowled up at him. She jerked herself free - she didn't have to, Hisagi let her go at the first sign of a struggle, and she was sent stumbling back some. She got the urge to yell again. "Well, who am  _I_  supposed to blame if my brother gets hurt because of you and all your weird friends!?" She shot back.

Hisagi reacted more like he's been smacked in the face with a cold wet rag. His surprise quickly melted into a cool demeanor, like a soldier's. Yuzu's anger simmered down quicker than before. She found herself relieved to be taken seriously rather than gawked at like her feelings were totally out of left field. 

"How much do you know?" 

"Not a lot," Yuzu admitted. "But enough to know my brother isn't at some soccer camp and that you aren't a camp counselor. Now tell me the truth." She demanded with all her mettle. 

"I can't," Yuzu wanted to scream again. Hisagi continued, unaware or uncaring of how frustrating he was. "It's not my place. I could get in serious trouble for telling you, first of all. Second, if your father and brother haven't told you, they must have their reasons. They're just trying to—"

"To protect me! I know, it's not rocket science—but I don't want to be protected!"

"Why?" Hisagi asked, regarding her like some unreasonable creature with scrunched up eyebrows. It was Yuzu's least favorite look in the entire world. She wasn't being some clingy little girl - she was doing her  _job_.

"They just don't want you to be scared. The things your brother deals with would only make you more worried and more afraid. Why would you want to know about them?"

"Because that is the responsibility I took up when I was five years old!" Yuzu screamed (and despite herself, stamped her foot). 

Hisagi was shocked. Who could blame him? It was a shocking thing to hear.

Yuzu seized upon his speechlessness to tell her story. "When my mother died, I took on many burdens. Other people may have seen it as a tragedy that a little girl would have to take up so much responsibility at such a young age. There's no denying that it was. I've missed out on a lot growing up because I just never have had the time or space in my head to even think about those things. Sports, and school clubs, and summer camps...boys and so much more. But I don't regret it, Hisagi-san. I'm happy to do everything in my power to help my family. The cooking, the cleaning, the shopping; I'm glad to do it all.

"But household chores weren't the only responsibilities I took up when my mother died. Fear was also a responsibility I welcomed with open arms. In my mother's place, I began to constantly worry about my family. There's never a moment I'm  _not_ afraid, Hisagi-san. Never a moment when I'm not worried about Karin getting hurt at soccer practice or my dad working too hard at his clinic or about my brother getting himself mixed up in some sort of trouble. I know those sound like such small things and maybe a little dumb, but...My family thinks they're protecting me when they hide the truth from me. But really they're keeping me from doing my job. I welcome all the fear that comes with knowing the truth if it means I can help my brother and his friends with what you're all going through. "

Yuzu's chest heaved. In and out in quick succession. She hadn't taken too many breaths during her little speech. It didn't help that her heart couldn't calm down with the cool way Hisagi now regarded her. Had she not moved him at all? Yuzu wondered for what must have been the thousandth time about the company her brother kept. 

"What if you can't help?" Hisagi asked finally. "What if the situation demands more than homecooked meals and laundry? Those things, they're all very nice, but..." He trailed off, his soldier's exterior slipping. 

Yuzu refused to be pitied. With a trembling smile, she struck her best imitation of one of Isshin's can-do-attitude poses. Thumbs-up and all. "If I know what my brother's up to, I can properly be there for him in spirit. No amount of distance or obstacle will keep my prayers from reaching him and powering him to victory." All confidence fled her. Yuzu deflated some. "Wozzers, that was pretty lame." She giggled self-consciously. 

Hisagi was nonetheless as awed by this display as the one they'd met in front of earlier that day. "You're definitely Kurosaki's little sister. Undaunted by challenge." He said with a smile. Yuzu smiled back, proud to be compared to her elder brother.

Hisagi sat back down on the bench and gestured for her do the same. "Settle in. It's…a long story, to say the least." It was. Abridged as Hisagi's version was, the events of the past few years sounded epic in scale. Soul reapers. Hollows. The Soul Society. Invasions and executions and conspiracies. Aizen. His Espada and arrancars. The Soul King. Fullbringers. The Quincy. Yet more invasions and another war. It was all so much to take in and frankly, Yuzu had a hard time believing it at first. In the end, however, it all made sense in some convoluted way and Yuzu accepted it. She'd lived her whole life in a family of ghost-whisperers and a vague sense of them herself; she had no right playing the skeptic. When Hisagi had explained as much as he could without the help of diagrams and a laser-pointer, Yuzu took a deep,  _deep_  breath.

"Thank you." She breathed.

"You're welcome. But honestly, I don't see what you plan to do with all this new information." 

Yuzu smiled brightly at the Lieutenant. Her own personal challenge to his doubts. "Just tell my brother when you see him that me and Karin are cheering for him and that when he gets home, I'm going to make him all his favorites for dinner." She cheerily instructed the soul reaper.

Hisagi chuckled and reached over to ruffle her hair. Yuzu pouted at him, not appreciating being treated like a little kid.

"You're a good kid, Yuzu. I can tell. Your brother's a lucky guy to have you for a little sister." He said fondly. Yuzu swelled with pride and decided to allow Hisagi's hand to linger on her head a few seconds longer. It wasn't like there was anyone around to see her mussed hair. 

From around a corner, a set of headlights appeared. A police car pulled up right next to the bus stop. Yuzu and Hisagi exchanged confused looks as the latter pocketed both his hands. The car window rolled down and an officer's head poked out with a flashlight in hand. He shined it over the two of them, up and down, and in their eyes. They hissed and shielded them with their hands. 

"We got a report about a young girl screaming at a man at a bus stop from this neighborhood. I'm guessing that was you?" Said one of the officers.

Embarrassed, Yuzu nodded her head. "I'm sorry, Officer. I-I was angry with my cousin here, you see." She quickly lied.

The officer cast Hisagi a highly suspicious glance. Hisagi's frown deepened. The officer crooked his finger, beckoning Yuzu forward.

She leaned in and the officer whispered in her ear, "If you're in trouble, young lady, just say the word. We'll give you a ride home."

Yuzu pulled away and shook her head with her most earnest expression. "I'm fine, Officer, honest. My cousin and I were just fighting because of, of…well…" Yuzu struggled to come up with a plausible story. She didn't have much experience with nasty family squabbles, which she was thankful for, but at the moment, it was a great disadvantage. She hadn't a clue what could cause an argument so bad that someone would run out into a thunderstorm. Yuzu certainly couldn't tell the police that she was mad that her family was keeping the deeply troubled politics of the afterlife a secret from her.

"She got mad because she felt like everyone was treating her like a little kid," Hisagi interjected. Yuzu and the Officer both turned and looked at him. Yuzu with relief and thanks, the Officer with mistrust.

Yuzu hastened to confirm Hisagi's story before the Officer could share his doubts. "He's telling the truth, Officer. I was just so angry. Everyone kept treating me like a little girl even though I'm not one anymore. They were keeping important secrets from me because they thought I couldn't handle it. I got so angry that I ran right out the door after yelling at my dad. But Hi— _Shuhei_ , my cousin, followed after me, and he and I just had a long talk about it. I feel much better now. We were just heading home when you came along, sir." 

The Officer was quiet for a moment, eyes shifting between Yuzu and Hisagi every few seconds, sizing them up. Yuzu hoped that her slip up with Hisagi's name didn't tip off the police to their lie. Hisagi looked nervous as well. It was odd how such the punkish young man could look so much like a puppy. Only the twitching fingers at his side betrayed his dangerous instincts. 

"Yuzu!" A voice called from down the street over the rain and rolling thunder.

Yuzu, Hisagi, and the Officer all craned their necks to spot her father running towards them. Isshin was drenched head to toe, his hair flat against his scalp and ridiculous, and relieved beyond human measure. 

"Yuzu," Isshin breathed as he came under the awning. "Thank goodness." Her father's arms enveloped Yuzu in a tight embrace. His damp shirt felt uncomfortable pressed against her, but Yuzu didn't mind. She hugged her father back.

When they parted, Isshin slapped on a stern expression.

"You shouldn't have run off like that, Yuzu. You could have gotten hurt or worse." He chastised her. 

"I'm sorry, Dad. I was just angry." Yuzu apologized. "But there's nothing to worry about now. Cousin Shuhei explained everything."

Isshin looked confused until Yuzu cast a rather obvious look in the police car's direction. Then he understood. "Oh, right. Well, thank you, Shuhei." Isshin said to his 'nephew".

Looking away modestly, or maybe to hide a tell, Hisagi responded, "It was no problem. Oji-san." 

The Officer observed the scene with disbelief. He must have been sure before that Shuhei was some punk harassing poor Yuzu, but their sloppily thrown-together cover must have thrown him for a loop. Yuzu pressed her lips together to dam her giggles. Lying was a whole lot funnier when it was done harmlessly to complete strangers.

The officer apologized and drove off, leaving the three of them under the awning in peace. They watched the car disappear around another corner and the area felt much darker for the loss of its headlights. Isshin rounded on Hisagi and Yuzu immediately.

"What exactly did Hisagi tell you, Yuzu?"

"Everything pretty much." Yuzu replied, feeling a bit guilty all of a sudden for going behind her father's back for information. She shouldn't feel ashamed, she reminded herself. She had every right to know what her brother was risking life and limb for. "Soul reapers, hollows, the Quincy. I'm sure there's more that I don't know yet, but I know enough for now. Enough to know why you didn't want to tell me. But like I said to Hisagi-kun, you don't have to protect me from being afraid for my own family's safety. I was doing that without knowing the truth and I'll continue to do it even after finding out the truth. And I'm okay with that. It's the job I took up when Mom died." 

Isshin looked caught between horror and admiration at his daughter's words.

"Yuzu, are you sure you want to know all this?" He asked. "I mean, it's a lot to take in, and I'd hate for you to get wrapped up in all this. Enough people have gotten caught up in this huge clusterfuck. Are you sure you wouldn't rather not know? Because it's not too late to make you forget all this." Isshin's words were gentle and not the least bit enticing. Yuzu shook her head without hesitation. 

"Dad…It's okay. I honestly don't mind being afraid as long as I can offer whatever little help I can to Ichigo. If all I can do is sit here on the sidelines and cheer them on, so be it." Acceptance washed over Isshin right before Yuzu's eyes. She was relieved that this wouldn't have to be another argument.

"I suppose it was time you knew the truth anyway." He sighed, ruffling her hair. By now it must have looked like a bird's nest. Father and daughter smiled Hisagi's way.

"Thanks for the news, Lieutenant, and for shedding some light on all my daughter's questions. I know it's not exactly in your job description. Good luck out there, and I'm sorry about Muguruma. I heard you looked up to the guy." 

Hisagi's smile was thin. "I did, but hopefully I will be able to honor his memory on the battlefield by putting that training he gave me to good use."

Isshin nodded. "He'd like that."

Hisagi bowed low. "This is where I take my leave. I've been here too long. The Vandenreich has most likely finished regrouping. They will be making their next move very soon." He gave them one last sheepish smile for the road. "I'd hate to impose anymore upon you, but could you please handle the disposal of my _gigai_ , Captain- _er_ , Isshin-san?" He asked, from soldier to marshmallowy puppy in seconds flat. 

Isshin waved it off as if he was asked to dispose of bodies every day.  _Gosh_ , Yuzu hoped not. Who knew with this soul reaper junk though?

"Not at all. I can pull some strings with the head of a local hospital. It'll be ashes by morning, no problemo." 

Yuzu didn't know how to react to that sentence, so she chose not to.

"Good luck, Hisagi-kun. I hope you, um, live." She said with a nervous laugh and more nervous smile. "And thank you. For everything." She added with a bow. When she straightened up, Hisagi was smiling back at her.

"You're welcome, Yuzu-chan."

Hisagi's body jolted forward suddenly then. His eyes drifted closed and he crumpled to the pavement at Yuzu's feet. Yuzu let out the beginnings of a shriek. Her father's hand clamped over her mouth put a stop to that.

She looked up at her father. Isshin smiled and pointed to where Hisagi had previously been stood tall and smiling. There, she could make out the faintest outline of a person.

"Is that…?"

Isshin nodded.

Yuzu watched the outline slowly move out into the street. She could make out his figure drawing something like a sword. That must have been his  _zanpakuto_. He held it out before him and there was a rippling in the air. Yuzu was certain she heard something like shoji doors sliding open. And then those doors slid closed again and the rippling had disappeared, and Yuzu could no longer see Hisagi's outline nor sense his presence.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Please leave a comment and kudos if you enjoyed the read, and thank you for your time!
> 
> I may add more in the future if I ever get around to editing the second chapter of this and the companion ficlets.
> 
> Brief FYI:
> 
> >This was written like a year or more maybe before Bleach ended so there's a good reason that it's not canon compliant in any sense.
> 
> >However, even if I had just written this today, I don't think I would want to comply with canon because the rushed ending left a lot to be desired for me (and no, shipping doesn't even make up 5% of my problems with the Bleach ending). For that reason, if I continue posting rewrites here, I'm not gonna be making any special effort to make what I already have written line up with canon.
> 
> >While we're in the ballpark of shipping, this piece was originally meant as a Gen character interaction piece. It still is intended as such. Nothing romantic is happening between the characters here in my eyes.
> 
> >The companion ficlets are a different story, but they are chronologically placed decades after this fic, so don't worry about it. It's seriously like, twenty years of friendship, thirty years of low-key pining, and then probs less than a decade of actual romancey couple junk. If you're interested in reading that, I will gladly edit the second chapter to this and some, if not all of the ficlets.
> 
> >I actually find it kinda problematic in canon that Yuzu was allowed to take up such a highly domestic almost motherly role in her family at such a young age (it reeks of sexism in character writing bc Ichigo should've more logically taken over more household tasks out of all the Kurosaki children bc he was the eldest - tho it's terrible in general that any kid would have to step up like that). But as Yuzu's character is unquestionably a domestic one who seems okay enough with her lot, it's not like I can strip her of that aspect of herself. Otherwise, based on canon, she wouldn't have much personality left... I just kind want there to be some more nuance to it...Hence this fic...
> 
> Anyhow, I'm blathering!! Again, comments are more than welcome (encouraged, some might say). Thank you for reading!


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